Black Lagoon: A New Era
by TakatoRikku
Summary: Sequel to Black Lagoon: Brothers. New vehicles, new weapons, new stuff all over! Drinks all round! Set 3 years after BL:B, we continue the life of Takato Sakamoto and his life in Roanapur as he works as a professional assassin for various organizations.
1. Red Fraction

And here starts Episode II: Eine Neue Ära of the Black Lagoon saga I've started. Enjoy, and review if you're bold enough.

Chapter Rating: M

* * *

**Black Lagoon 2:**

A New Era

_Red Fraction_

"Motherfuckin', ass raping, shit-licking cunt scabbed semen-guzzling BASTARDS!" Takato screamed, as he hid behind a brick wall while heavy gunfire rained into it. He looked at the smouldering hunks of metal in his hands.

_15 minutes earlier..._

Takato walked into the courtyard in the German city of Berlin, Ebony and Ivory underneath his coat tails as usual. He had been sent on a spying mission for Balalaika on some German Neo-Nazis who were currently trying to give the woman trouble back home. If not for the fact that he had been heavily bored, he probably wouldn't have taken up this cheap $5,000 job to this shitty country. He sighed as he sat down at some random coffee shop, and opened up his laptop. He played around on the internet for a while and listened to his J-Pop before raising his eyes over the screen to see a group of men walk into the shop.

They were dressed in civilian clothes, but there was no doubt in Taka's mind that they were the Neo-Nazis he was trailing. Each had Arian looks, and military haircuts underneath their hats. The fact that they showed no hidden sneers at foreign races that littered the shop were no help to their current predicament. Each of them was carrying a large travel suitcase, hopefully filled with information Takato would steal after he'd killed them. It was time.

The five men sat down at a table nearby and began talking to eachother in harsh German. Though he couldn't understand many of the words they spoke, other than "coffee" he knew they were talking business. He picked up the word "Russian" that he could feebly translate from German and knew that these were part of the Neo-Nazis that were annoying Balalaika.

Some time later, he finished his coffee just as they finished their drinks. Packing up his laptop he left ten Euros, a very fair tip for his 2-Euro coffee and left the shop, smiling at his waitress' happy wave as she collected her money. He followed the men out of the coffee shop, and that's when it all went to shit.

Some paces away from the shop, each man suddenly spun around, pressing a hidden button on the handle of their suitcase. the suitcase clattered to the ground, revealing HK MP5K submachineguns with what looked like an ammo belt clipped into each one, the line feeding from the suitcase itself. They lifted their SMGs to Takato.

"Shit."

He dove behind a nearby bus stop bench and drew his pistols as they opened fire into him, narrowly avoiding being shot. Takato rolled and jumped away to a nearby pillar and fired back, managing to kill one Nazi. His comrades bellowed out in anger, and increased their fury on him, spraying the pillar to pebbles as Takato had to dive away once again. He managed to hide behind a parked BMW which started to take the abuse from the automatic fire and reloaded his pistols. Waiting for a lull in the gunfire, Takato held both guns to the sides of his head as he squatted behind the car. There was a pause, and he stood up quickly, making to open fire.

He immediately covered his face with his arms and guns as a grenade landed on the hood of the car, exploding and sending him flying backwards into an alley, bleeding from his wounded forearms. He dragged himself to his feet as the gunfire opened again, and went to ready his guns, despite the pain.

Then he happened to look at his guns. And screamed.

Ebony was now 5 inches shorter, and currently only sported the handgrip and chamber. Ivory was worse off, having been turned into a large lump of metal as the grenades intense heat fused its metals together, melting it. His guns, his precious guns were now completely useless in the gunfight, and even worse, destroyed!

_Back to the present..._

"God damn it!" Takato yelled angrily, sliding the remains of his guns into the holsters as best as he could. He looked down the alley and spotted a way to escape, towards a mesh fence that would lead to another part of the city. He ran down to it. The Nazis followed him into the alley, opening fire, and he knocked down trashcans and used protruding objects to prevent getting shot. Taking a running leap, Takato flew towards a wall, then used his legs to kick off it, lauching himself over to 8 foot fence and to safety.

He patted down his rumpled clothes and smoothed out his rumpled hair. He rolled his eyes angrily at what had just happened and reached into his laptop bag, pulling out the small computer. He pressed the buttons to remove the round stick battery and twisted said power source by the middle. It made a click as it rotated one half of itself 180 degrees and started beeping quickly. Takato quickly tossed it back over the fence behind him and walked away, ignoring the large explosion that knocked the fence over, drawing cries of shock and bystanders to run towards it. He waved for a taxi.

"Eye for an eye," he muttered, getting inside. "Airport."

-----

_"I'm sorry about your pistols, I know how much you loved them," _Balalaika said apologetically as Takato lounged back in his seat in First Class. He was on plane to the United States. _"I'll pay for any repairs okay?"_

Takato sighed as he held the plane phone to his ears. "They're beyond repair, I'll have to replace them," he explained sadly. He had departed from Germany quickly and decided to fly to the American West Coast, where his gunsmith was located. "I'm en route to my gunsmith."

_"Okay, just send me the bill got it?"_ Balalaika allowed. _"I feel really bad about what happened Taka-sama. How are your arms?"_

He rubbed his bandaged forearms. They had been cut up almost badly when the grenade fragments tore into them, but fortunetely it was only lacerations, and no chunks had been ripped out. He would heal within a month or so, but he still had full functionality with each arm. "They'll be right as rain in several weeks," he said. "I get real tired quickly though."

_"You poor baby,"_ Balalaika cooed, totally out of character from her normal sense. Then again, the Russian military-ish leader had a different side to her pseudo-children. _"Alright, I'll see you in a month or two then?"_

"That should be enough time for Tony to whip something up," Takato said with a nod. "Maybe something bigger this time."

_"Your old guns weren't big enough?" _Balalaika asked with a laugh. _"Okay then, you know which account to bill."_

"I know, goodnight _obasan_," Takato said, and hung up. He looked out the window and put his chin into his hand. "It's gonna be a long month."

-----

"Tak man, it's been like 8 years since you last saw me," Tony Redgrave greeted as the younger man walked into the gun store that the man owned. "I hope the girls are okay?"

Takato grimaced. "They're dead," he muttered, flopping down onto the counter, eyeing several shotguns warily. "Fragmenting grenade."

The burly American winced. "Ouch," he said. "So I suspect you'll be wanting replacements?"

Taka shook his head. "Something new and fresh," he objected. "I've carried Ebony and Ivory for over 10 years, you don't replace them just like that. I need a pair of new girls."

Tony nodded. He went to his desk and pulled out a large sketchbook. "I have several designs that I've been keeping just for you," he announced, opening the sketch book up and showing Takato some wild designs. On the seventh page, the Japanese man's lips curled into a smile.

"I like those."

-----

A month and a half later, Takato finally set foot back in Roanapur. It had been an exciting 6 weeks with Tony, and he spent his time shooting many of the man's rare and exotic pistols, shotguns, rifles and machineguns at the private shooting range. Tony had closed his shop and dedicated all his time to creating Takato's new pistols, and worked tirelessly at his forge and mill, bringing in truckloads of titanium each day. The resulting product exceeded each of their expectations.

Each pistol was unique in shape, unlike the previous guns owned by Takato, which still looked like normal pistols somewhat because of their Colt 1911 base frames. These guns were quite long, with 10 inch barrels and no compensators. On each side was a Gothic-looking religious cross, with the longer end facing forwards. The crosses were part of the slide, and would move back when with it when fired (similar to a Desert Eagle's slide action). Each gun was different than the other. "Angelica" was Satin Silver White, with annodized red and yellow gold accents on her cross. Her trigger and hammer were also yellow gold. "Devilica" was Metallic Charcoal, with annodized blue and silver accents on her cross, and silver trigger and hammer colors. Each gun had their respective silver/black handgrip covers, and on Angelica's there was a deep engraving of an angel with one wing flared out, and blue eyes. Devilica had a similar engraving, but with a darker toned woman with a bat-like demon wing, and red eyes. The guns looked sadistically beautiful.

(AN: Here's the part where I'm WAY too lazy to describe the new guns. Visit my profile for a link to the guns. I sketched them first, then MSPaint'd the shit out of them. It's not finished yet, but you'll understand the basic look of them.)

Both guns were a lot more powerful than Taka's old pistols, using Desert Eagle internals (which were in fact based off of M16s), each chambered in a ridiculous .50AE caliber, and sported 10 inch competition length barrels. Fortunately, both guns were constructed of lightweight 7075 aircraft aluminum and forged-lightened titanium, so they weighed around 2.7kg (6lbs) each. They each used Tony Redgrave-Custom extended Desert Eagle mags, which held 15 rounds each in single stack formation, making the handgrip slightly thinner and easier to use. These mags were basically two mags forged together on ends, with a custom spring for the added length. Tony made enough for Taka that he could perform at least 20 jobs without having the hunt for his mags. The gunsmith would be periodically shipping newly made magazines monthly for the Japanese man.

The pistols were immensely powerful, and the recoil was something akin to firing a full length shotgun single-handedly, but Takato once again proved that his strong arms could handle it. Since the barrel itself was fixed to the frame (much like the barrels on Revy's Berettas) the hand canons were amazingly accurate up to a very long range. Takato loaded the mags with tapered-tip FMJ rounds, which would easily pierce most types of body armor. If they didn't the sheer blunt force trauma would mostly likely finish off the target. Even though the vest would protect against piercing, the force of the high powered round would turn the "safe" armor into one huge hammer, crushing ribs and causing internal damage. It was win-win for Takato.

Having stopped off in Africa on the way back, Takato went to a game-hunting field and joined a team to go elephant-hunting. One shot from one pistol dropped a 9 ton African bush elephant to its knees, and a shot from the other killed it instantly. He was very pleased with the results, even though he had to kill a poor animal to see them. He had the creature traditionally buried with honors.

And now, he exited the helicopter and stepped onto the seedy grounds of Roanapur, a city populated with villains within villains. A group of them were actually waiting for him too.

"Hey, check it out, Devil-boy is back," one of them, a large Filipino sneered. "We heard you broke your guns pretty-boy."

Takato raised his eyebrow as the group pulled out varying types of guns and pointed them at him. "Then you probably have heard that I've gotten new ones?" he asked with a smirk, twirl-drawing both D&A hand canons. He shot a Vietnamese thug's shotgun with Devilica (his right hand gun, for the right hand was for smiting. Angelica was in his left hand, for justice) and the weapon exploded from the sheer impact of the long round, which kept going and pierced the man's chest, sending him flying back a dozen feet.

_OH SHIT!_ was on the thugs' collective minds as Takato trained his new pistols on them.

-----

"Heard you had a welcoming committee," Revy said in a bored tone as she flipped to the Oprah show. Takato found a stool and sat down on it while Mei Ly giggled and reached for his holstered guns. "No sweetie, don't play with _ojisan's _- hey hey hey! New guns!"

She leapt off the couch and hurried her three year old over to her husband, who picked up the giggling girl. "Bye bye _ojisan_!" she chirped as Rock smiled and left to take her to the park. Revy had meanwhile assaulted Takato and filched his guns from him.

"Wow, they're so sexy!" she gushed, holding each one in her hand. "But man, they're damn heavy!" She continued to examine the beautiful guns, drinking in their almost antiqued look and deceiving delicacy. She ran her fingertips over the gorgeous engravings (that Takato did himself) and cooed over the irony of the crosses on each side of slides. It was like the Church of Violence, using religious symbols for pretty much evil. Hence, the sadistic-ness of the guns.

"How strong are they?" she asked, aiming Devilica out the window. Takato smirked as her finger tightened on the silver trigger.

"Makes a Desert Eagle look like an airsoft gun," he announced as she fired.

A sound something akin to a higher pitched Deagle gunfire noise filled the room loudly, and Revy's arm whipped back as she was thrown back into her couch hard. She cackled maniacally as she struggled back up, giving the guns back to Taka, who did his usual twirl-holster.

"Oh man, those are sweet, did Balalaika pay for em?" she asked gleefully.

"Yeah, _obasan_ felt bad about sending me to Germany only to leave minus 2 guns," he said with a smile. "$50,000 for the new guns. Angelica and Devilica."

"Where do you get these guns?!" she asked in awe. Takato pulled his wallet out and handed her Tony's card.

"He's my private gunsmith, doesn't make a gun for anyone but me or Saito," Takato explained. "We saved his wife's lives one day while we were in America. That following night his wife told him that we saved two lives that day, because she was pregnant. He came to us and practically begged us to let him make us custom guns because he was forever in debt. He owns a gunshop in the West Coast, and only caters to us for special jobs."

"Hey Taka," Revy pouted, eyeing the card, "You think he could make me something?"

Takato raised an eyebrow. "You don't like Sword Cutlass anymore?" he asked curiously.

She shrugged. "I love my guns, but they have their downsides," she said. "Low power cuz of the 9mm rounds, no armor-piercing and it usually takes me a couple shots to kill someone. I'd rather do it in one shot."

Takato rubbed his chin. "I'll ask him about it, but no promises," he compromised. "Sound fair?"

"Sure!" Revy said, punching him on the arm. "Thanks!"

"Now if you don't mind," Takato said, heading for the front door, "I've got a bloated girlfriend to get home to."

"See ya lil bro!" Revy yelled as he headed down the stairs to the dock. He walked the short distance to the Miyuki, and saw that the Black Lagoon 2 was docked right next to it, the sleek and dangerous submarine an exotic look in the harbor. He walked up the attached ladder to the deck of his yacht and headed downstairs to his bedroom.

"You're back!" Cecilia cheered from the bed, holding her swollen stomach tenderly. "I've missed you!"

"You too luv," he answered, giving her a very nice kiss. He hadn't seen her for months. "How's the squirt?"

"Very active," she beamed. "He likes to kick a lot, makes me sick sometimes."

"Hey there," Takato warned, pressing his hand to her 6 month pregnant stomach. "Don't you give your mother grief young man!"

Cecilia giggled madly and threw her arms around him, and Takato pressed up against her, minding her stomach. "You're too funny. Are those your new guns?"

He nodded and placed D&A on the night stand. Cece looked over them curiously, but didn't pick them up. "They're pretty," she commented. "Was that what I heard from the office not too long ago?"

Takato laughed wryly. "Revy wanted to try one out," he explained. "She flew back a few feet, but it was probably worth it to her. She wants her own exotic guns now."

"Hmm." was all Cece said as the lay back down. "I'm tired."

"Me too," Takato yawned. "Been on aircraft for the past 4 days. Let's take a nap."

"Love you."

"Love you more."

-----

"Looks like it's gonna be a hot day," Benny commented as he cracked open his Heineken. He, Rock, Dutch, Takato, Saito and Ginji were standing on the deck of the Miyuki in a straight line, drinking beer a la King of the Hill.

"Yup," Rock answered, taking a swig of his beer.

"Mmhmm," Takato hummed.

Dutch raised an eyebrow at the others. "Ok there Hank Hill," he said with humor, crushing his empty can and reaching into the cooler to get another one.

"Any plans for today?" Saito asked the others. He got varied replies.

"Boss Chang called about a joint-operation we could pull," Dutch said.

"Balalaika always has jobs," Takato added.

"If we called some of our friends across the Pacific we could always find something to do," Benny said as well.

"Joint-op?" Saito asked in interest. "What's that all about?"

"A decoy delivery job," Dutch explained, drinking his beer. "He suggested that you guys use your yacht as bait to draw the attention of some people who want the cargo, while we go underwater and sneak away."

Saito waved his hand dismissively. "Eh, if the money's not good enough, we're not risking our lives or Taka's home."

"Chang said he'd offer us $175,000 each," Dutch enticed.

Saito rubbed his chin. "Hmm, if he also paid for damages on top of that, I'd consider it," he answered. Dutch nodded.

"We already told him that for our sub," he responded. "So he would probably do it for you guys too."

Saito turned to Takato. "Well, what do you think?" he asked.

-----

"So... who exactly are we going up against again?" Takato asked his brother as he checked the ammo boxes for the .50cal guns. Making sure the ammo belts were loaded, and the boxes full, he closed them up.

"The American Coast Guard," Saito called down from the bridge. Takato dropped the ammo belt he was holding.

"Wait, what?!" he asked incredulously.

"You heard me," Saito answered. "We're making a run to the West Coast Triad cell that Chang has operating over there. They're running low on supplies and need a delivery that they know can make it into America. That's why Chang chose us and Dutch's crew."

"What could they be low on that they can't get in America?" Takato asked.

"Conflict diamonds," Saito said, stepping onto the bridge. "For their black market."

Takato rolled his eyes. "If I were Dutch, I'd keep the cargo and fuck off to somewhere that Chang couldn't find me," he muttered. "He's probably got a ton or two worth of diamond crates in his sub."

"Even so, we have too much honor and ties with Chang to pull anything _stupid_," Saito said warningly. "Come on, might as well say goodbye to our women."

They hopped down to the dock and drove to Saito's main hotel uptown. There, Cecilia, Alicia, Yukio and baby Mei Ly were staying there for the time being until everyone came back. They would have protection under Chang's forces, and Cecilia was still dangerous of course, despite being pregnant.

After some tearful goodbyes from their loved ones, the men drove back to Lagoon office and stored their vehicles inside. Takato followed his older brother out to the docks where Dutch and his crew were loading supplies into their prototype CU-boat. Revy waved from her spot on the mast.

"Hey guys, you ready to go?" she called. Saito waved back as they stepped onto the bow of the sub, shaking hands with Dutch, Benny and Rock.

"Ready when you slow asses are," Saito answered, avoiding a shove from Dutch that would have had him in wet Ralph Lauren. "Bastard!"

"We'll be in international waters for a while in the Pacific before entering American territory," Dutch said, closing the large hatch on the sub's stern section. "We have clearance to sail internationally, but once we're in American waters we're on our own. The Coast Guard will give you a hard time with ships, cruisers and helicopters."

"We've gotten some toys from Sister Yolanda," Takato reassured the older man. "We've got a Stinger launcher with a nice cache of missiles mounted in front of the bridge under a fake fishing rig, plus _obasan_ loaned us a Russian M1939 37mm flak gun which is in the garage."

Dutch nodded thoughtfully. "Good stuff," he said. "We've loaded 6 torpedoes and 1 Harpoon missile for aircraft. We also have sonar dummies in the rear hatch, so we should be safe as long as we're deep."

"So the plan is to sail with you guys directly under us?" Saito asked for confirmation.

Dutch nodded. "Right. We'll be cruising all of the way at 40 knots, so we can get there maybe 10 hours earlier," he said. "Once we're in American waters, we'll kick it down to 20 knots, and ascend a bit so we're 20-30 feet underneath you, to avoid being detected. If all goes well then we'll slip in easily. If the coast guard shits its pants, then try to use our 'request to enter the beach' plan."

"Hey Dutch, we're all ready to go!" Rock called, waving from the sail of the sub. Dutch waved back and turned to the brothers. "It's go time."


	2. West Coast

_West Coast_

"What're you up to?" Eda asked as she settled herself into a folding chair. She watched Takato as he tinkered around with dismantled parts of his guns.

"Customizing 'em," he answered shortly, tightening some screws on a long piece of metal. It looked like the bottom half of the frame of one of his pistols.

"What for?" she asked, peering out the porthole and watching the ocean apathetically. She had been dragged along as usual and was bored out of her mind.

Takato shrugged. "More firepower, what else?" he answered, flipping a bullet to her. She caught it in one hand and looked at it through her pink shades.

".500 S&W Magnum," she read, rolling the half-inch wide, inch-long bullet in her fingers (AN: Have you ever seen one of these? I have, the thing is a ridiculous beast! Think about it, most 9mm guns use 9X19mm rounds... this is a 12.5X25mm bullet we're talking about!). It was heavy. "The most powerful pistol bullet in the world..."

"It's a 350 grain round," Takato explained as she gave the bullet back to him. "Travels at 2000 feet per second and has a muzzle energy of over 3000 foot-pounds of energy. It can kill elephants in one shot anywhere, blow through armored car doors, 2 feet of solid concrete and steel doors. Bullet-proof vests of any type are useless against it."

"Why do you need to use it?" Eda asked, leaning back into her chair, pushing her sunglasses up on her nose. He shrugged.

"I'm never satisfied with the power I have," he answered. He pressed the bullet into what Eda thought was the bottom part of his gun's frame, but it clicked into the end and rotated to fit inside the opening. "It's a custom-magazine I invented."

Eda walked over and looked at the magazine that Taka had created. It looked exactly like the bottom section of his gun, but the end that faced the trigger had a notch cut out of it which showed a sort of rotating lever. The bullets Taka was loading into it were placed onto the lever, which would then be depressed and rotated 90 degrees so that the bullet would be secured inside the magazine like normal bullet-loading.

"This way, I can use the entire length of my pistol frame to store bullets," Takato explained, pressing one last bullet into the unique magazine. "The mag uses a system similar to an FN P90, and rotates the bullets so that they load into the chamber. Each mag holds 24 bullets."

He picked up Angelica and put the feed side of the mag to the bottom of the cross, where he had modified it to have a rail that the mag would slide onto. He slid the mag onto the rail and pushed it all the way back, with the feed side clicking into place. Eda noticed that the pistol grip had been completely replaced, and it resembled a revolver handgrip, with finger guards (Large one for the trigger finger/trigger guard, medium for the index and a long one for the ring and pinky finger). The entire handgrip was covered in shock-absorbing rubber, most likely for the recoil the gun would now produce. Takato pressed a button on the side with his thumb and a double-click was heard, and even though the slide didn't move, Eda assumbed that the gun had automatically cocked itself.

"Much better than 15 rounds, don't you think?" Takato asked, holding the gun up and doing some practice aiming. It was slightly heavier, but still easily managable. "I'm going to test it out before I start on Devilica."

He left the blond woman in the cabin as he headed out the hallway to the deck, and she rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Oh Takato, what am I gonna do with you?" she sighed, looking at all the parts lying on the desk. She glanced at her watch. "We're almost in American waters... I should make a phone call..."

-----

_**BLAM!!!**_

Angelica kicked back in Takato's left hand as he fired a practice shot, but the recoil was still very similar to the gun's old configuration when using the shorter and less-powerful .50AE round. Thankfully he had installed internal baffles and wipes in the slide's interior, which quieted the gun down somewhat, or he would have gone deaf from the explosion of muzzle fire. He fired off another round to make sure his custom magazine was properly feeding, and smiled in satisfaction that it was. Saito joined him on the front deck.

"What in God's name are you doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the totally different gun in his younger brother's hand. "Hey, it kinda looks like the gun from Gungrave now!"

Takato laughed. "I wasn't aiming for that, but I guess it does, doesn't it?" he asked, looking at Angelica fondly. The manga-esque woman on the gunframe looked at him lasciviously in eternity. Saito slapped a hand on his shoulder.

"We're entering the Coast Guard's visual range in 7 minutes," he warned. "I've warned Black Lagoon already, so you better head below deck."

_"Yokai,"_ Takato answered, hurrying downstairs.

-----

_"Unknown ship, please identify yourselves and your intention,"_ the radio crackled. _"This is the US Coast Guard, repeat, please identify yourselves!" _Saito picked up the microphone.

"This is the private yacht _Miyuki_, requesting to enter American waters to continue our cruise vacation," he answered, pressing some buttons. "I am sending our coordinates and vessel data over the wireless now."

20 feet below the Miyuki, the Black Lagoon submarine lurked silently, its engines off and running off the air fuel engine. The sub was also latched onto the stern hull of the Miyuki as it was towed along at 30 knots.

_"S.S. Miyuki, your identification matches global records, but what we would like to know is why you don't show up on our radar?"_

"Shit," Saito muttered, his hand hovering over the automated weapons system panel. "US Coast Guard, I do not understand what you are talking about, please repeat?"

_"Our cruiser has you in visual confirmation S.S. Miyuki, but none of our vessels or aircraft pick you up on radar,"_ the USCG operator answered tightly. _"We request that you slow your speed to 15 knots so that we can escort you to base for questioning."_

"I don't think so," Saito said, moving to put the mic back into its cradle and reaching to the weapons system.

-----

"- call them off, the CIA is participating in an undercover operation, we can't afford to fail this mission!"

Takato paused outside the door as he heard Eda's voice. _What? CIA?_

"... Roger that, keep them away and let us dock."

He furrowed his eyebrows. _Better ask questions later,_ he thought. He looked down at the handcanon in his left hand. _I can eliminate her afterwards if I have to._

He crept away a few paces from the door and then walked back, making loud footsteps to announce he was coming. As he expected, when he opened the door, Eda was seated in a chair, smoking away at a cigarette, as if nothing had happened. He sat down at his desk, his back facing her.

"Saito says that the Coast Guard fell for it," he explained in an even tone. "So we'll be docking port in a few hours."

"That's great," Eda said cheerfully, but Taka could sense some falsehood in her tones. "I can't wait to get off this floating bucket!"

"Don't worry Eda... It'll all be over soon," Taka said quietly, working on Devilica. He didn't see it, but Eda frowned thoughtfully at the back of his head, and she was deep in thought.

_Could he suspect something?_ she wondered. _He doesn't sound like himself..._

-----

"Tony, meet Revy," Takato introduced, pushing the beautiful Chinese woman in front of his gunsmith friend of 45 years. Revy smiled cheerfully and waved at him.

"Hi!" she said. "So you make Taka's guns huh?"

Tony nodded and flashed her a smile. "That I do miss," he answered.

Revy waved her hand. "It's Mrs., but whatever," she called as she checked out some pistols on display. "Wow, these are nice!"

Each one was customized, and they ranged from Colt 1911s to Walther P99s that were cosmetically tuned. Tony nodded in thanks and sat at the desk, leaning on his shoulders.

"So Takato here says that you'd like your own set of pistols huh?" he asked. "Can I see what you're carrying now?"

Revy shot Taka a look, and he nodded. She unzipped her jacket and placed Sword Cutlass on the desk. Tony picked them up, and made sure they were unloaded and safetied before checking them out.

"Not bad, not bad," he commented. "But they're still factory-issued upgrades in my mind. What were you looking for, gun-wise?"

Revy pressed a finger to her lip. "Something... stronger I guess?" she answered vaguely. Tony "hmm'd".

"If you like the Beretta M-style, I can make you something similar to these," he finally said after a few minutes. "Ever seen an M93R before?"

Revy shook her head. Tony went to one of the heavily locked gun cases and opened it with a key, before scrummaging around. He pulled a box out and placed it on the desk. Opening it, he pulled out what looked like a Beretta, but slightly larger in size.

"This is a 93R," he explained, handing the empty gun to Revy, who held it in her hands. "It fires in semi-auto and 3-round burst. It uses 20 round mags."

"It's bigger than I'd like it to be," Revy pouted. Tony took the gun back with a laugh.

"I can modify it to be smaller, but you'll have much more recoil," he warned. Revy shrugged.

"I can handle it," she said confidently. "But isn't that gun still 9mm?"

Tony shook his head. "Yes, but it's much more powerful than normal 9mm handguns," he replied. "Especially with the select-fire burst mode. It would take me a few weeks, but I can machine custom hard-chromed parts for you, with any design you'd like and whatever mods you'd want."

Revy's eyes bulged out in excitement. "REALLY?" she gasped, her mouth hanging open.

Tony nodded with a grin. "A friend of one of the brothers is a customer to me," he said. "More money this way too."

Revy had starry eyes as she clasped her hands together. "Wow!" she gushed. "My own super-custom guns! I can't wait!"

"What would you like on them?" Tony asked. He spread a parts booklet out on the desk, and Revy thumbed through it.

"I want the longer slide and barrel," she announced, pointing at a 6 inch slide on one page, and a 7 inch competition barrel on another. "You can chrome them, right?"

"Of course!"

She grinned, flying through the pages. "Oooh, I definitely want these!" she said, pointing at a white gold accessories set, which included the trigger, slide release, slide stop lever, mag catch, selector switch, hammer, mag guide and all screws in white gold.

After another half hour, she decided on ivory grips like on her current guns, and the same engraving as well. However, this time the barrels would have custom engravings as well, with the same tribal design as Revy's tattoo on her right arm/shoulder. Tony would be engraving everything himself, and would also coat the engravings in white gold, to make a subtle contrast to the brighter chrome of the rest of the gun. Each 20 round magazine would also be chromed as well, and Revy decided on 20 mags in total.

In the end, her new 93Rs would look very similar to her old 92Fs, but with slight changes, and of course the burst fire function. Since stock 93Rs were thick and bulky (due to the weight offsetting the heavy recoil), no one would be able to tell her 93Rs from normal 92Fs, since Tony would be replacing all the parts with a custom frame, slide and barrel that had the same dimensions as 92Fs.

The bill came to be around $34,000, which sounded much cheaper than Takato's Angelica and Devilica, but that was because his guns were custom-made from scratch. Revy's would still be based on actual guns, but heavily modified. Speaking of Takato's guns, he showed Tony his own mods and the man was pleased with the heavy mechanical and cosmetic changes to the guns, and also commented on their Gungrave-ness.

"Here's the designs I made for the custom mags," Takato said, handing some rolled up blueprints to Tony. "Sorry about making you waste DE mags, but I'll pay for the ones you've finished."

Tony waved him off. "I've got some customers asking about them, so don't worry about it," he said. He paged through the papers. "Damn kid, you just might put me out of business one day! This is ingenious!"

Takato laughed and shook the old man's hand, and Revy did as well. "I hardly think so," he replied. "How's Wanda and your son?"

Tony smiled. "They're fine, just great," he answered. "Wanda retired from SWAT a long time back, and Gareth is actually entering SWAT training now."

Takato smirked. "Gotta keep it in the family, huh?" he asked.

"But of course!"

-----

"You didn't tell me that you bought your stuff off an ex-cop," Revy commented as the two walked around the Miami beach.

Takato looked at her from his shoulder. "Does it matter?" he asked.

Revy shrugged. "You've trusted the guy for years, so I trust him," she said flippantly. "But still, it does make me nervous."

"I see," Takato said. "He's a good man Revy."

"Sure."

"He'll put his work over his old duty."

"I hope so."

"Hey guys!" Eda said with a smile, bounding up to them from the beach by the road. She was dressed in a tight white tank top which was drenched with water (she had probably gone for a swim) and it showed her pink bikini top underneath. She currently wore a matching bottom with a white sash wrapped around her hips. "How'd the shopping go?"

"I got some new jewelry," Revy said dryly. "Did you have fun out there, whore?"

Eda wrinkled her nose. "I haven't been on a beach this nice for years," she said snootily. "Can't blame me for wanting to have some fun."

"You're going to put someone's eye out with those huge things on your chest!" Revy shot back, enjoying their verbal sparring. Takato sighed and wandered off from the two.

_Those two..._ he thought, heading over to a bench. He sat down and eyed Eda discreetly. _I wonder about her..._

_"- call them off, the CIA is participating in an undercover operation, we can't afford to fail this mission!"_

Who's side was she really on?


End file.
